Exclusive: Ed Miliband tells Channel 4 News there will be difficult times ahead for public sector workers under a Labour government and he cannot guarantee there will not be cuts to the NHS.
The day after the Labour Party leader wowed delegates with his confident “one nation” speech, Ed Miliband told Channel 4 News he could not guarantee that the NHS would be saved from public sector cuts under a Labour government.
“Of course I can’t promise there won’t be hospital closures and then some services get changed,” he said.
On the day that the future of the NHS is being debated by delegates at the conference, the Labour leader admitted that the public sector as a whole was not immune to cuts under a Labour government: “I couldn’t have been clearer that there will tough settlements in our public services, and it will make life harder for those who use them, and harder for those who work in them.”
But Mr Miliband repeated the pledge that he would repeal the NHS bill if he became the next prime minister in two years’ time, even if changes were already under way under the coalition government.
“We are going to repeal the bill. Why? Because it puts the wrong principles at the heart of the NHS,” he said. “Because it says to hospitals, you should be competing against other hospitals, as a central, defining principle of the way this whole service works.”
During his keynote speech at the Labour Party conference in Manchester, Mr Miliband paid tribute to former Conservative leader Benjamin Disraeli and his idea of’ “one nation”. He told Channel 4 News that he personally had read “parts of Disraeli”, but acknowledged the influence of politicians further to the left and said that he had “learned a lot” from the last Labour leader, Gordon Brown.
There will tough settlements in our public services, and it will make life harder for those who use them, and harder for those who work in them. Ed Miliband
On banking reform, Mr Miliband said that breaking up the banks would be a “drastic step” but said it was necessary if the banks themselves, and the coalition, failed to implement the recommendations of the Vickers report in full: “I’m saying to the banks, if you don’t implement the spirit and principles of the Vickers report to the full, hard separation between investment banks, casino banks and the high street bank, the next Labour government will, by law, break it up.”
The Labour leader did not commit to whether he would approve a referendum on Europe at any point in the future, but said it was not a priority “at the moment”.
He added: “I’m clear at the moment, that the priority for Britain is not to have a referendum on our membership of the European Union,” he said. “Why? Because we’re in deep economic difficulty as a country and I don’t think the electorate would forgive us if we made that a priority.”
After losing the race to become Labour Party leader to his brother, David Miliband has been noticeable from this absence in the shadow cabinet. However Ed Miliband told Channel 4 News that his brother was “happy doing what he’s doing” currently, adding: “He’s a huge asset to the Labour Party. He’s making a big difference to the party in a whole range of other ways”.